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RE: Steemit In Schools: How We're Empowering Kids To Free Themselves
I really like your videos, very easy to watch. You have a great attitude about life. I am quite impressed.
The education system is nothing but a institution to crank out does so it needs a lot more than this but this would be huge addition for sure!
Best Regards~*~
Thanks. Yeah, I'm a big fan of unschooling, personally. I'd never even dream of outsourcing my parental responsibilities to agents of the state... but there are already a lot of other kids stuck in that situation, like I once was, so I'm thinkin' this is a good way to help them.
Exactly!
I completely agree and as have said many times you are an exceptionally capable, intelligent and honorable person.
Best Regards~*~
As a public school educator, I do find wide sweeping negative generalizations about our system like "cranking out products" to be rather distasteful. I really respect this opinion and completely understand where it comes from, so please do not read my words as angry. To the contrary, I am not blind to our overall reality, and know we are by no means perfect as a system. We are already not on a level playing field, and as @piedpiper mentioned in this piece, the educational system has weaknesses in many areas of life preparedness.
But, I do know this: what better alternative to a free and compulsory educational system is there? Research has shown time and time again that extrinsic reward models such as those mentioned in this piece actually have negative impacts on students, reducing their overall intrinsic motivation levels if used too much. Many tout a completely free market system, but when you take the compulsory out of education, you walk a dangerous line of excluding those that cannot afford the best, or those with special needs, or even those with parents that cannot make proper decisions as guardians.
Thanks for raising the points you have, and @piedpiper thanks for the wonderful ideas brought up in this piece! I don't think in a vacuum they are a complete widespread solution to student engagement, but do believe they are a conversation starter to get us going in a great direction!
Agreed. The system we have now is not perfect but that doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. Both of my Grandfathers had to leave school at around age 12 and get a job. They did not look back on those memories so fondly.
It can exist as an option, of course, but I'm very much against making it mandatory and stealing money from people to subsidize it.
I suppose I always viewed my tax dollars as supporting a free education for all, instead of them being stolen from me. But, I do agree with your perspective on more options. Students are not one size fits all and need to have many outlets to support their heirarchy of intellectual needs.
Yeah, no doubt the state funds things that I like too... but how the money is acquired and how it's spent are two different things. Just because the mugger that stole your purse gives some of the loot to a starving orphan doesn't make his initial crime any less wrong. I wouldn't have any problem with it whatsoever if contributions were all voluntary.
Yeah, I guess I find myself on the side of advocating the completely free market system. Those on the opposing side usually believe that the education services being provided are so important that their absence in a child's live is unacceptable. I disagree pretty firmly with that and am of the opinion that learning happens all the time and shouldn't be thought of as something that's confined to a special facility. Even a penniless hobo can wander into a library and learn pretty much anything at all if he actually wants to. The internet has broken down barriers to information even more, smart phones can be purchased for about ten bucks, and most cities even have free wifi hotspots... and then there's also the moral aspect to consider. As far as I'm concerned, it's wrong to force anything on anyone. If I don't want to pay for the services that someone else wants, I shouldn't have to. Likewise, I shouldn't be imprisoned in an institution for six hours per day to be educated against my will. I'll never send my kids to school. They'll learn as they wish to, at their own pace... but obviously my position is a controversial one and I certainly don't expect everyone to agree. I'm content to just for offer a different perspective and highlight new options and alternatives to what most people take for granted as the norm.
I thank you very much for your perspectives and rationally thought out comments! I do stop short of the belief of a free compulsory education as a version of imprisonment, but do agree about learning needing to be the constant with time being the variable. Right now, our system can unfortunately sometimes promote quite the opposite of that. I can't even begin to tell you the times I have lamented having to just move forward with material for the sake of fitting in the necessary curriculum.
This being said, there are strides being made in the direction of learning being the constant, but mostly baby steps. And, of course, no one agrees about which direction is best. I really appreciate the debate though, and much like this conversation, believe it to be completely healthy.
When it comes to educational reform, I am behind anything that puts student learning paramount, with equitable and free access with full supports offered for all learners. Supports that would encourage the "penniless hobo" to learn at their own pace and subsidies to provide them the ability to do so. Getting there though, is the battle!
Yeah, I have a lot of ideas about how to achieve that but unfortunately, most of them are illegal. lol So instead, I moved down to South America to start a new start-up community where innovators can gather to experiment with new concepts and demonstrate them practically. Theories are nice but most people need to see something working in the flesh before they'll take it very seriously.
"a free and compulsory educational system " exactly right _you are free to do as you are told, comrade, and you will LIKE IT it"
other wise...who would build the roads?